Jackie Robinson ’47 debut ticket stub sells for file $480Ok; Michael Jordan ’84 debut ticket fetches $468Ok

The file for most costly collectible sports activities ticket was set twice with Heritage Auctions early Sunday.

Concurrently, a ticket stub from Jackie Robinson’s 1947 debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers and a full ticket from Michael Jordan’s 1984 debut with the Chicago Bulls, each graded by PSA (Skilled Sports activities Authenticators), offered for $480,000 and $468,000, respectively.

The earlier file for the costliest collectable sports activities ticket was $264,000, a ticket stub from Jordan’s NBA debut — the identical recreation, albeit a checked ticket — is now the third-most-expensive collectible sports activities ticket ever.

Mike Cole, the director of admissions for operations at Quinnipiac College, was a freshman at Northwestern College in 1984. A lifelong Bullets fan, his father stunned him with two tickets to an October Bulls-Bullets matchup.

“I used to be solely a month or two into college,” mentioned Cole, who requested a number of classmates to attend. “I wasn’t that stunned or upset nobody might go along with me.”

Cole stowed the unused ticket away; it is now the one identified full ticket from Jordan’s debut, in response to Heritage. By means of many years, strikes and downsizing, it went from field to field, a totem from a bygone time when his now-late father was looking for him from afar.

“It was my first time seeing a Bulls recreation,” Cole mentioned, recalling his father, who was a D.C.-area lawyer. “Years after his demise and he is nonetheless offering for me.”

“He was 18, in a brand new metropolis, and nobody took him up on going to the sport,” mentioned Chris Ivy, director of sports activities auctions at Heritage Auctions. “[In his pocket], it turns from an previous reminiscence [into] a lottery ticket.”

Cole joked that he is “not going to get a Lamborghini,” a day earlier than his monetary fortunes irrevocably modified.

“I have been frugal for 55 years,” Cole mentioned. “Our wants are met — we’re lucky in that extent — however we might get on some planes. I’ve household in Hawaii and Barcelona I’ve by no means visited.”

Whereas playing cards and memorabilia have exploded in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an increase in recognition of tickets and stubs from previous sporting occasions.

“Tickets are driving a recognition wave like we have seen earlier than with classic images, [especially with this] ticket stub from Jackie Robinson’s breaking the colour barrier,” Ivy mentioned.

He added: “1000’s of individuals go right down to their basement and are available throughout gadgets. We have gotta reply all of them earlier than one thing like this comes alongside.”